Meaning of good-cop-bad-cop | Babel Free

Examples

“When he and his partner play good-cop-bad-cop, I bet I know who plays bad-cop.”

“They played "good-cop-bad-cop", they skipped questions and repeated questions, they went over the same ground three and four times, they pointed out natural causes for things he had witnessed, they asked what his real motives were to get his adrenalin pumping, they called him "imaginative", and calmed him down when he took offense, and at the end of two hours both they and Prophet were exhausted.”

“He played good-cop-bad-cop all by himself. First he was tender and considerate, worrying that she might have cut her hand, and the next instant he was berating her for a supposedly faulty memory where her own marriage was concerned.”

“You just have to be really strong and if the actor starts to bitch, you say, ‘Okay’ and you play good-cop-bad-cop, and you bring in the other head producer.”

“He singlehandedly played good-cop-bad-cop, refusing to budge while expressing sympathy for their plight.”

“Truitt could tell by reading his deputy’s body language that if they were to play good-cop-bad-cop, he would have to take the role of the good cop himself.”

“Francis never interfered when Lillian got a head of steam. They had unconsciously developed their own unique version of good-cop-bad-cop, and it worked very well.”

“For a good cop, she was pretty convincing, as well. Funny how that worked. I knew they were playing it for my benefit. For all I could tell, in real life she was a brass-plated bitch and Rocco spent his weekends delivering baskets of gumdrops to orphans. But knowing they were playing good-cop-bad-cop didn’t make me feel any better.”

“Cathy and I were thinking of playing good-cop-bad-cop on him, hoping two women in the same room will mess him up.”

“Gary wondered if they were playing good-cop-bad-cop as they led him to the curb and helped him into the back seat of the police car.”

“He played good-cop-bad-cop with himself. The good cop wanted to believe that Addison had returned for rest and relaxation, to recuperate from the fall.”

CEFR level